And Now For Something Completely Different: The Virtual Museum of

Canada

The Canadian Heritage Information Network

Mobilizes and supports a collaborative network

of Canadian museums using digital technologies

Develops and providesskills development

products and services for heritage professionals

Supports the development, presentation and promotion of

digital heritage content

National Centre of Excellence in Technology

CHIN enables Canadian museums to engage their

audiences through the use of innovative technologies

The Digital Situation of Canadian Museums

Canadian museums cannot make digitization their highest priority

Canadian museums have not yet entirely accepted the added value that digital can bring to the museum experience

Canadian museums face a digitization backlog

Canadian museums as a practice rely on outside agencies to do digital curation

Challenges Facing Canadian Museums:Challenges of Scale

Most Canadian museums are small

Most Canadian museums are local

Most Canadian museums are relatively poor

Even larger museums

face fiscal challenges

Bytown Museum, Ottawa, Ontario

Challenges Facing Canadian Museums:Challenges of Knowledge

Increase in digitization projects has resulted in an increase in the need for staff trained in information technology

Recruiting and retaining expertise is a common challenge for most museums

Many museums lack the IT-trained staff to complete digital curation projects in-house

Appearance of more and more sophisticated digital tools only exacerbates the situation

Challenges Facing Canadian Museums:Challenges of Outlook

Recent research has revealed that:

museums are continuing to hire largely for the traditional roles (curatorial, collections management, etc.)

museums have modest expectations of candidates’ knowledge of emerging digital tools and applications

there is a disconnect between what museums say they require from job candidates and what they actually ask for

The Virtual Museum of Canada

Virtual Museum of Canada Exhibits

VMC Digital Curation vs Artefacts Canada Digital Curation

VMC Successes

# 1 search engineranking on theWeb

365 learning object collections

and over 500 active teachers

150 interactiveresources

500 virtual exhibitions

680,000imagesof artefacts

More than 3,000organizationsrepresented

2 million + visitsannually

Challenges of Doing Digital Curation on the VMC

Ongoing challenge of competition between virtual and physical exhibitions

Ongoing challenge of in-house museum competencies

Rapid pace of technological progress Ongoing museum hesitancy to embrace digital curation

Editorial sustainability

Choice of content

Museum Digital Curation in the Right Direction

Websites and Contact Information

Websites CHIN’s corporate website: www.chin.gc.ca VMC: www.virtualmuseum.ca The Professional Exchange: www.pro.rcip-chin.gc.ca

Contact Information dhendricks@pch.gc.ca